Gov. Walz compares ICE to the Gestapo, Trump admin calls remarks 'dangerous'

Gov. Walz compares ICE to the Gestapo

Gov. Walz is facing pushback from the Department of Homeland Security after he compared ICE to the Nazi police force the Gestapo while speaking at a University of Minnesota Law School graduation over the weekend.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The Department of Homeland Security is calling out Governor Tim Walz after the governor made comments comparing ICE to the Nazi police force.

Walz compares ICE to Gestapo

What we know:

The governor made the remarks while speaking over the weekend at a commencement ceremony at the University of Minnesota Law School.

During the speech, Walz warned the graduates that attorneys who stand up for the rule of law are needed now more than ever.

"Right now, more than any other time in my lifetime, we need you to live up to the oath that you're about to take," he told the law school graduates, "because, I have to be honest with you, you are graduating into a genuine emergency."

"Every single day, the President of the United States finds new ways to trample rights and undermine the rule of law," Walz continued.

Walz told the crowd he understood some might feel the speech was getting "too political" but said he felt it was something he needed to address.

"And I'm going to start with the flashing red light," Walz explained. "Donald Trump's modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They're in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons, no chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans and disappeared. To be clear, there's no way for us to know whether they were actually criminals or not because they refused to give them a trial."

DHS calls remarks 'dangerous'

What they're saying:

The Trump administration blasted Walz's comments on Monday, calling it "dangerous rhetoric" in a statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security, the agency which oversees the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"Governor Walz’s comments comparing ICE agents to the Gestapo is sickening. This type of rhetoric and demonization of ICE officers has led to our officers facing a 413% increase in assaults," read a statement from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "While politicians like Walz fight to protect criminal illegal aliens, our ICE officers will continue putting their lives and safety on the line to arrest murderers, kidnappers, and pedophiles that were let into our country by the previous administration’s open border policies."

The DHS statement then continued to list nine immigrants that had been arrested in Minnesota for crimes including murder, sexual assault and drug trafficking.

Immigration arrests in Minnesota

Local perspective:

ICE arrests have made headlines locally, most recently with the arrest of an accused drunk driver involved in a deadly crash who was released twice from Hennepin County Jail despite detainers requested by ICE.

The administration's crackdown on international college students has also been under the microscope. The Dean of Global Education for Minnesota State University Mankato, where 12 students had their visa records terminated, said many of the cases involved "minor infractions" like speeding tickets and sometimes cases that never resulted in charges, only police reports.

Dig deeper:

In two recent court rulings, judges accused DHS of retailing against speech rather than acting in the name of public safety.

Earlier this month, in a court filing in the case of Mankato student Mohammed Hoque, a judge said it appears the college student had been targeted for supporting Palestine rather than posing a danger to the community. Hoque had been held in ICE detention for more than a month before being freed by the ruling.

Another judge issued similar findings in a separate case involving a Marshall hospital worker who had been detained by ICE. In that ruling, the judge sided with attorneys for Aditya Harsono, saying he had been targeted "in retaliation for his speech than because of any professed public safety concern."

DHS has argued Harsono was a threat due to his criminal record, which included a protest arrest in 2021 and a vandalism conviction in 2022.

What they're saying:

In an email to FOX 9, a Walz spokesperson pointed out that President Trump himself had made a similar remark just last year, comparing the Biden admin to the Gestapo.

In a statement, the spokesperson added:

"Minnesota is proud to have international students studying at our world-class universities with visas. President Trump’s orders to snatch up students who come here legally to work hard and get an education do not have anything to do with securing the border. Everyone deserves due process, and Minnesotans deserve to know who exactly these federal agents are taking from our college campuses, where they’re being sent, and why."